Under Haredi Pressure, Smotrich Moves to Restore Tax Breaks for Non-Conscription Funders

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is working to restore tax benefits worth tens of millions of shekels a year for associations that finance yeshivas whose students do not enlist, it was reported tonight (Thursday) on Kan News.

In recent weeks, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara issued a directive stating that anyone who donates to yeshivas whose students do not enlist will not be eligible for tax benefits. The directive prompted very harsh reactions from the Haredi parties, amid estimates that the damage would amount to tens to hundreds of millions of shekels a year.

As part of a petition filed by the organization Israel Hofsheet on the matter to the High Court of Justice, the finance minister wrote that, in his view, the attorney general’s directive had been formulated without authority. Kan News has learned that the minister is expected to hold a discussion on the issue with officials in his ministry in an effort to cancel the directive, among other things because of pressure from the Haredi parties.

In response, the Finance Ministry said: "The legal adviser conducted the entire process in a scandalous manner behind the back of the finance minister. If the Haredi parties advance the dissolution of the Knesset and thwart the separation of the attorney general’s roles and the alignment of her role with what is customary in democracies around the world, they will have to provide explanations to their public, which is being persecuted by the attorney general."